Frustrations are mounting - Sounder At Heart
SEATTLE — As Héber broke into the open field, it looked as if the Seattle Sounders might break their home scoring drought less than a minute into Saturday’s match against Orlando City. The chance was the culmination of a well-worked attacking pattern that saw the Sounders move the ball smoothly from their penalty box into a scoring position with seven quick passes. The final ball was a perfectly-weighted pass from Albert Rusnák that hit Héber in stride just as he pulled past the last Orlando City defender and lined up his shot from about 14 yards out.
Orlando City goalkeeper Pedro Gallese read it well, however, and made the save. Héber gave a knowing wink to Rusnák, acknowledging the well-executed movements.
About a minute later, the Sounders had another glorious chance when Nouhou broke several lines to play Léo Chu into space on the left wing. Chú cut into the box, put in a cross that Héber backheeled to Yeimar Gomez Andrade. Yeimar’s touch was heavy, but it fell right to the right foot of Nicolás Lodeiro who struck it well, only for the ball to clang off the crossbar.
Just two minutes into the match, the Sounders seemed to be flying.
Although the pace of chances slowed over the next 50-odd minutes, the Sounders continued to create good looks both through intricate passing and quick counterattacks. But each time, they came up short — either just missing the decisive pass or failing to find the range on a shot. In the end, it was another scoreless game.
That marked the third straight home game in which the Sounders have failed to score and the second straight time the game ended 0-0. They’ve now been shut out eight times overall and are on pace to have their lowest-scoring 34-game season in their MLS history.
“If you can’t score goals you can’t win games, and we need to win games,” Sounders midfielder Obed Vargas said. “We’re all frustrated, but we know all we can do is keep working and keep training.”
Unlike their previous home game, the Sounders at least created chances in this one. Aside from the early looks by Héber and Lodeiro, they fired off 14 shots, including nine more shots from inside the penalty area, and hit the woodwork twice. It was the eighth time this season that their actual goal total was at least .8 less than their expected goals (1.2 on Saturday).
The good news is that the Sounders have posted 10 shutouts and are on pace for their best defensive season ever, but there’s an overwhelming feeling that points are being left on the table. Despite going 3-6-3 over their last 12 games — which most frustratingly includes a 2-3-2 record at home — the Sounders are somehow still in third place in the Western Conference.
That probably helps explain why there doesn’t seem to be any real sense of panic within the group, even if this stretch of games undeniably represents a lot of self-inflicted wounds.
There still seems to be a sense that if the Sounders can figure out their scoring woes, they can still achieve many of their goals. That doesn’t make the lack of scoring any easier to accept, of course.
“We know we’ve been having good starts,” Yeimar said through a translator. “The problem is the ball is just not going in. We’re not so much frustrated as we are impatient.”
Source: Sounder At Heart
